Out and About on St. Andrew's Day

Sadly, the workload at James' job is so low that he is on 24-hour weeks until the end of the year. Sure has put a crimp in our budget, but we can still go out and enjoy things.

So this year he got to come to the Apple Annie craft show with me; craft shows really aren't "his thing," but we talked with lots of folks, saw some pretty crafts, and even ran into an old friend. This is held at the Catholic Church of St. Ann out on Roswell Road on the way to (what else?) Roswell, near the Merchant's Walk area which is at the intersection of Roswell and Johnson Ferry Roads. On the way we stopped at Trader Joe's to buy a few treats for Christmas and refill our fruit bar collection. James loves their fruit bars, and they are low sugar, so healthful for him with his diabetes. Well, they had none, which was majorly bizarre. They anticipate getting more in tomorrow; however, they also aren't making the cranberry version in November any longer, although we did get the pumpkin flavor last month. Alas, we will not get any gingerbread sticks this year, either, as the company that made them for Trader Joe's went out of business.

So it was on to Apple Annie. There were plenty of handicapped parking spaces and no policeman out front to tell us the lot was full as I've complained about in previous years. We went from room to room—this covers the whole church complex, including the meeting rooms and the school and the gym—enjoying the crafts and all the "kringly" decorations—once again, a lot of jewelry, but very lovely stuff, made from gemstones or interesting beads, also artwork, ceramics, dog neckerchiefs, essential oil sellers, soaps, pottery, clothing, carved crosses, glassware, suncatchers and other leaded glass things, purses, etc. (not as much cutesy stuff for grandchildren to wear this year)—and we ran into Claudia Barbour and her friend Gloria while coming out of the gym. Claudia is living in Toccoa now.

I noticed the "papyrus lady" did not show up this year and am thankful I had bought all the beautiful things I loved of hers previously. Another vendor who was missing was the Asian lady who paints the little birds so beautifully, and the vendor who made non-electric speakers out of wood—they looked like two trumpet bells fixed back to back—and beautifully carved and polished with African designs. I always wanted one, but even the smallest was beyond my budget. The artist made them of good woods: walnut, mahogany, etc.

We mostly bought little desserts from the bake shop, the sale which supports the school, picking up little bags of molasses crinkles, thumbprint cookies, tiny pumpkin loaves, white chocolate cranberry cookies, and some chocolate treats. I also got myself a small jar of a sugar scrub, since my hands get so dry in the winter. This one is made with coffee grounds, and smells delightful!

I usually stop in the sanctuary to say some prayers, but it was closed today while they did some work on the balcony, so I went into the chapel instead and bared my heart and finished in tears. It's been such a difficult year!

For lunch we stopped at Tin Lizzy's and had soft tacos for lunch. They have a couple of different kinds that I can eat if I get them made-to-order. Otherwise it was an ordinary lunch, and then on the way home we stopped at Publix to finish the shopping, and arrived home just in time, as it was starting to rain. We'll be housebound tomorrow due to the rain, so I can take the Thanksgiving things downstairs and start decanting the Christmas stuff.

Had leftover turkey soup for supper with leftover couscous in it, and oyster crackers, filling and yummy, and of course the usual complement of evening programs like the news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy. Had the new season of America in Color on, but really wasn't watching because I was reading. I'll have to rewatch "The Wild West" again. Did lay off reading for Hawaii Five-O.

How About A Feast Pig?

"The first piggy banks were part of European children's preparations for Christmas. The children were taught to save their coins in earthenware "feast pigs," which were to be opened as part of the Christmas Day celebrations. A modern version of this tradition could encourage the family to save money for Christmas. The collected coins might be used for a special Christmas offering or sharing project. Rinsed-out bleach bottles or papier-mâché layered over an inflated balloon, can be transformed into great "feast pigs." Adding cork legs and decorating with acrylic paints or scraps of felt or calico will give each pig its own personality!"

from Celebrate the Wonder: A Family Christmas Treasury 

Here's a "feast pig" made from a plastic milk jug. Your pig need not be pink; a Christmas pig could be red and green, or blue and covered with snowflakes. Glitter will make him—or her!—shine. The money raised could be donated to Toys for Tots or some other children's charity. 

Our Autumn "Social Season" Begins

The first of our autumn events arrived today: the annual Yellow Daisy Festival. We arose early to eat a quick breakfast and so Tucker could have his dog walk before we set out on the 37 mile drive to Stone Mountain Park. Traffic, of course, was minimal for a Sunday morning, and we got there at nine o'clock with our early pass. It was nice and quiet for a while, but it was already warm and very sticky. I was perspiring profusely before we were halfway through. It was harder walking than DragonCon for me, and I almost missed one farmstand that we really wanted to buy from.

As always, the crafts are a mix of everything: cute kids' clothes, toys, lots of different types of jewelry (the person who I got the Doctor Who headband from had a Walking Dead headband this year), homemade clothing (one lady had beautiful hand-woven sweater/shawl type items I would have loved, but they were very expensive, and worth every penny of the work!), pottery, food items of all sorts (jams, maple syrups, soup and casserole mixes, nuts, sauces), tools to work with foods (barbecue forks, hand-carved wooden spoons, bread knives), metalwork items, the occasional furniture items, hammocks, textile crafts—well, name it, it's there. As usual, there are lovely things we'd like, but can't afford: weathervanes, yard decorations, hammocks...but we must pass them by. However, James did get a new leather wallet, and then we stocked up on food goodies for the rest of the year: Smack Yo' Mama barbecue sauce; MeadowCroft Farms sweet onion relish (we love this stuff on steak and pork and even lamb!) and also sweet pepper and onion relish for James and some blackberry jam for me (till we can get to Ellijay for the blackberry spread I love); First Sergeant products (bourbon pineapple and brandy cherry sauces for us, and medium hot salsa for his burritos); and the first of our two fudge dessert indulgences. I also bought another bar of dog soap.

I was exhausted when we got done and we'd only been there two hours. We are usually there longer, but I did not buy anything from Country Pick'ns this year. It made me a little melancholy, but I've kind of mined them out for my interests. I have Christmas, winter, fall, seashore, kitchen, and pet elements all over the house at various times of the year, and I made fall and Hallowe'en items into a Thanksgiving theme. Her other themes are camping (which I used for a wedding gift), beach, gardening, sewing, and cooking, and I don't do any of those. Would have loved to have seen them do art/painting, writing, etc. But it's sad to have to "abandon" them.

We came directly home, getting caught in a short shower which quit the minute we got the power chair in the house. Spent the afternoon enjoying the air conditioning. I even fell asleep.

James made pork chops for dinner with the bourbon pineapple sauce with a cucumber side, we caught up on Mad About You, and now we're watching stuff off the DVR. It's almost as "high" as the to-be-read piles.

On the Third--and Fifth--Day of Christmas

I've been out this week twice stocking up on crafting supplies. What with James' problems taking up most of the first seven months of this year, I had gotten out of the habit of using the Michaels and JoAnn coupons. I need to take this up again. What I gather can be use for gifts, and when money starts getting tight in the future, that will be useful.

Tuesday I went to Town Center because I had two good JoAnn coupons, a fifty and a forty. Town Center is great because four hobby/craft shows are right near each other, in walking distance, really, if you are in good shape. I skipped Hobbytown because they're mostly models, trains, and puzzles, and started at Hobby Lobby, where they were industriously putting up Valentine decor, having scrunched Christmas into as few aisles as they could. I checked out the leftovers, but mostly ugly stuff was left. I was getting an urgent call of nature, so I left without picking up anything else.

First checked out the bathroom at JoAnn, then the merchandise. Storage was already on sale, so I finally got a case for my drawing pencils. With the other two coupons I got a start on a Christmas gift (actually parts for a couple). Then next door at Michaels I picked up something that will become another Christmas gift, plus a bag of little pieces of wood. I have an idea for them that isn't quite formed yet.

From Craft City I went to Book City to check out the clearance table at Barnes & Noble. No goodies today, sadly. Checked for new books and gave the magazines a once-over, then went to Publix in the hopes of finding a baguette. I did, as well as some low-sodium beef soups for James, plus they had Sterlite storage boxes on BOGO, so I bought two.

I came home through the battlefield park and down Kennesaw Avenue past the beautiful old homes with their long aprons of lawn and sweeping sidewalks, which are more traditionally dressed in greens and red bows. I like to slow down and look at the homes, but always there's someone behind me and I can't linger too long to check out the beautiful gingerbread trim and the columned porches. A couple of people even have wire fences like the one that used to be in front of my grandfather's house, not your garden variety chain link, but like the wire in the photo at right (click to see details). They make me ten kinds of nostalgic.

I got home just in time to see the flurry of posts on Facebook about Carrie Fisher's death. Damn. I hate 2016 more each day. I sat down, got fidgety, and pulled out my drawing pencils and sketched Artoo-Detoo saying farewell to his princess in hologram. Yeah, cliche and corny, but who cares? (Damn. She was younger than me.) And then, oh, yeah, the exterminator showed up.

Casually skipping over yesterday and later Tuesday night, which is covered elsewhere, I woke up having had a sort-of decent sleep. After breakfast and puppy perambulation and enjoying listening to Dana and Mugs, I headed for Lowe's to see what was left of their Christmas stuff. They had strings of C-9 clear bulbs and I decided to try once again to provide some light out in the back yard, while the tattered remnants of the last string still hang broken from the deck. I have to take them down and put the new string up properly; I think it broke because I just swagged it from some floral wire; it shouldn't dangle. (Of course there's a chance the stupid squirrels chewed it, too.) I also bought clear and white C-7 bulbs, and checked out the LED bulbs again. I also looked for winter banners, as ours is shredded. They had some, but only in small sizes. Eeek! I've had to order one online. Hope I don't get skunked.

Now, Michaels had a two-day after-Christmas coupon: 40 percent off all jewelry-making supplies. This seemed too good not to take advantage of. I originally started for the Hiram store, but changed course to go back to Town Center because I still had two more JoAnn coupons. I was able to pick up some really good pieces in Michaels, either under the coupon or on clearance, and found some dimensional Modge-Podge to use with their 50 percent off coupon. JoAnn was just as profitable; I bought some permanent colored pens, a holder for James to use for his medications, and a few more sale items.

I told Snowy I would try to be home around noon, but missed it by an hour. Once again I came home through the park. The parking lot near the park headquarters was crammed with cars and dozens of people (and many dogs) were walking on this beautiful sunny day with temps in the 50s, tempered by a pretty brisk wind which kept a steady stream of dead leaves swirling around any area they had accumulated. At one point leaves came dancing in front of my car like tiny ballerinas skipping across a stage. Once again I logged on to Facebook to discover that someone has passed away: this time it was Debbie Reynolds. She had what they thought was a stroke yesterday after commenting on daughter Carrie's death. ::sigh:: Now mother and daughter are reunited again.

For the rest of the afternoon, I had a leftover pork chop for lunch, put some of the most egregious mess away, updated blog entries, played Christmas music and more Christmas specials stacked up on the DVR (Perry Como in Austria and Bing Crosby joined by Mary Costa and Robert Goulet, plus the second half of a Pearl Harbor special that I unfortunately missed the first hour of, talking about how Admiral Kimmel was screwed by military intelligence and warned too late due to multiple blunders.

James and I had the rest of the pork-recipe beef pot roast for supper with scalloped potatoes, slices of a Terry's chocolate orange for dessert, and I have been watching specials about Switzerland: a tour of Swiss Christmas markets and now a train ride through Switzerland.

A Country Pick'ns Thanksgiving

More years ago than I can remember, we have been going to the Yellow Daisy Festival, and one of my favorite vendors there are a couple named Tom and Jan Messenger out of Kansas who run a craft business called Country Pick'ns. They make little shadow boxes and then the tiny things that go in them, all with a country theme, and sell them at craft shows all around the country. They have several themes: Christmas/winter, camping/cabins, autumn/Hallowe'en, summer/beach, patriotic, sewing, gardening, kitchen/cooking, farm, and homespun/housekeeping. The "shadow boxes" themselves are vertical or horizontal, and some look like bookshelves, but all are in miniature. Over the years, I've bought several sets from them:

Previous Purchases

The "Me" Shelf Completed

In addition, when my friends Mike and Jen got married, they went camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for their honeymoon, and I did a Country Pick'ns shadowbox as their wedding present, with a deer, a canoe, a campfire, a lantern, and a few other appropriate items.

The one shadowbox I've always wanted to make, however, was a Thanksgiving-themed one, but they didn't have one. I've been thinking and thinking about this for several years now, and when we went to Yellow Daisy this year I went through all the items, bit by bit, to see what I could work with. Below is what I came home with.

As you can see, most of the items have a general fall theme. The closest shadow box background that I could find that would work with Thanksgiving, however, was actually a Hallowe'en-themed item and originally had a goofy-looking cat behind the pumpkins. I took the back off and painted it out before I took this photo. Then I went online and found a cartoon turkey (at left) that was the closest I could find that would approximate the Country Pick'ns style. I cut a slit along the top of the pumpkins in the background image and slid the turkey in.

The bread on the breadboard, the pumpkin and "bittersweet" in the pail, the second pumpkin, the corn in the basket with the leaf on it, the pie, and the "harvest blessings" sign I could use "as is," since they all related to harvest and feasting, but the rest would need a little fixing.

The witch hat I sawed the top off, and also the little curl on each side, and painted the whole black with a brown band and a gold buckle to be a "Pilgrim hat." Yeah, I know Pilgrims didn't wear hats like that, despite the pictures, but it's part of the iconography. Even the Mass Pike has the stereotypical Pilgrim hat as a symbol.

The chicken I took and painted its body brown like a turkey and gave it a big wattle. It still looks chicken-y; I guess we can call it a ticken? :-) Or a churky? Whatever.

I took the autumn lady, clipped the brims off her hat, and then painted what was left of her hat white, giving it some bonnet lines with a drawing pen, and gave her a big white collar as in the paintings of 17th century woman, along with black shoes with buckles, plus I darkened her skirt to a darker autumn color.

The "jump in the leaves" plaque I popped the leaves off with an X-acto knife (losing one in the process) and completely repainted, then glued the leaves back on. (I had to buy extra leaves through an online craft store since Michaels quit carrying them. I peppered a few more on the shadow box frame itself.)

If I had it to do over again I would not have used such a wide drawing pen. It doesn't quite look like Jan Messenger's work, although I tried to duplicate her style as much as possible. I think I'm also going to borrow some matte-finish from James so the repainted areas—I only had gloss paint—won't shine so much.

But...here's the result. I have my Thanksgiving shelf at last.

Rudolph Day, September 2016

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.


Christmas in the Crosshairs, Gerry Bowler
"There's a war on Christmas!" has been proclaimed now for several years by groups angry about stores saying "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" or state governments forced to take state-funded creches off state property, etc. Is there really a "war on Christmas"? Well, yes, says Gerry Bowler—but then there always has been.

Christmas has, believe it or not, been a bone of contention since 4 AD (or 4 CE, if you prefer). The early Christian church sanctioned no Christmas celebration and in fact, over the years the most vociferous opponents to Christmas merrymaking have been Christians themselves. "We should not be celebrating the birth of the Christ child as if he were some King Pharaoh," thundered early Christian leaders. The Puritans pointed out that nowhere in the New Testament was "Christmas" mentioned, just a weekly day of rest and prayer, and those were their only days of rest practiced in their meeting houses. The new Protestant religions, especially the Calvinists and Presbyterians, post-reformation rejected "Popish" Christmas celebrations while others pointed out that most of our Christmas customs derive from earlier pagan practices (mistletoe, the evergreen tree, the Yule log), other old time practices (feasting due to killing of livestock that couldn't be fed during the winter and gifts which came from Roman custom of giving gifts at the New Year), or involved wicked events like dancing and singing of songs that were not hymns and—heaven forbid!—men dressing like women and vice-versa. Other religions, as well as nonbelievers, were tired of stores being overwhelmed by Christmas carols and decorations from late November, and worse, their non-Christian children being forced to make Christmas ornaments and sing religious songs.

Bowler neatly and sometimes humorously recounts the history of the holiday, and the protests against it, from the Christian rise which overtook the pagan religions (and absorbed so many of their customs) all the way up to the protests by the Westboro Baptist Church, the ACLU, and various organizations who feel there's just too much Christmas in December. Since I collect books on the history of Christmas, this was a welcome find. I have Mr. Bowler's World Encyclopedia of Christmas and I'm off to find Mr. Bowler's book about Santa Claus now; Christmas in the Crosshairs would make another good-reading addition to my library!

What if we make something for Christmas? Many craft projects should be started now:

"Better Homes and Gardens" Christmas Crafts

"Country Living" Christmas Crafts

"Parents" Christmas Crafts for Kids

Cross-Stitch Christmas Free Patterns

Rudolph Day - January 2016

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Check out some free Christmas cross stitch patterns.

Some poetry for the day!

[little tree]
By E. E. Cummings

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see          i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid

look          the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"

A Kringly Weekend

Christmas is a comin'—which means extra mornings for sleeping late!

Hey! When you're my age, that's a gift.

I'd actually expected the lawn guys yesterday morning or this morning. Hmn. Whatever. The lawn hasn't grown an inch anyway. However, I did have to wait for UPS to pick up James' Amazon return; he ordered what was supposed to be a "complete" anime set, but what he got was only the first disk. While I was waiting, I started to dub off the Advent and Christmas episodes of Feasts and Seasons of the Church (and cleaning the bathrooms). This is a show hosted by Joanna Bogle, who is a conservative Catholic from England. This particular series has an episode from before Advent starts, all four Sundays of Advent, and then celebrating after Christmas through Epiphany. She talks about the various saints' days in the interim, practicing faith, and throws in a recipe each show. (There are also six shows for Lent and six shows for summer through Michaelmas in September.)

I had gotten through three of them when UPS arrived. I'd wanted to go up to JoAnn today, so I passed the package on, finished up with that episode, and then grabbed my coupons and went. The Michaels and JoAnn at Town Center are now only separated by a parking lot, so I hit Michaels first and bought some sale ribbon, then went to JoAnn. Had to make two circuits because three things I was going to use coupons on were already on sale. Luckily, I made that second circuit, because I found a perfect gift for two different people. I bought one for each of them. And at half price!

From there I was just headed for home, and it took me ten minutes just to find a way out. When I'd gotten to Town Center, traffic was just like any other Friday. An hour and a half later when I emerged, the crazy Christmas shoppers had come out of the woodwork. No matter which way I went I ran into a long line of cars heading either for another part of the shopping centers complex or turning left toward the mall. Finally, a dedicated right turn opened up where it had not been a few minutes earlier when an inconsiderate idiot getting into the left lane blocked the right lane with his car. I got out of there like a shot, had a nice drive home through the park, and, once there, finished dubbing off Feasts and Seasons.

Ate at home tonight and then headed out to the movies. Since it was opening weekend for The Hobbit, we figured we would have better luck trying to see Lincoln tonight and seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on the earliest show the theatre offered. Well, here we arrived at the movies, on a Friday night, and there were three people in line. We were flabbergasted. The Hobbit started in ten minutes, and we just walked in and found a seat; I don't think there were twenty other people in the theatre.

Anyway, we enjoyed the movie very much, although I thought they could have left out the Three Stooges trolls. Martin Freeman was adorable as always and I finally sorted through the dwarves, but my favorite part was Sylvester McCoy playing Radagast. No matter what role he plays, he never quite gets rid of that lovely Scots burr.

James had to work Saturday, so he left home about seven and I slept in until eight, then had breakfast. I was toying with going to Books-a-Million, but we have coupons there until the end of the year. So instead I went to the Avenue at West Cobb to see if I could find something to use one of two Barnes & Noble coupons on. Couldn't find anything I was looking for. I did drop in to the Yankee Candle for a minute and picked up a packet of their Balsam and Cedar scented icicles for the Christmas tree. Then I stopped by Hair Day for a few hours, just to see everyone. Brought Mel and Phyllis' Hanukkah gifts—Phyllis got a kick out of hers; a plaque that said "I'm still hot! It just comes in flashes"—and talked with Alex a while about finding a Charlie Brown tree and with Mel about Android apps.

I'd toyed with the idea of baking cookies this afternoon, but by the time I left Hair Day it was too late, especially since we had to leave the house posthaste when James got in. So I came home to finish a gift (sadly, it didn't turn out as nice as I wanted) and dub off Castle episodes. I got four of them done, which takes a little of the burden off the DVR. By then James was home, and Willow was walked, and we headed out for my belated birthday dinner, at the Colonnade, of course. It was a nice chilly night for a ride into town, and of course the restaurant was packed when we got there, but because there were only two of us, we had a seat in not too long. We had an excellent waitress and gave her a good tip!

Of course I had the turkey, and so did James! I had applesauce and cucumber salad to go with mine; their applesauce is outstanding and not overly sweetened. Unfortunately the vinegar in the salad dressing made me sick for the rest of the night.

From the Colonnade we went to the performance of An Atlanta Christmas at the Academy Theatre. This year ARTC was presenting all the humorous skits, including two new ones. I still think the pirate skit is dopey, but then I'm not a pirate fan. The Academy Theatre folks did two short plays, the funny A Cthulu Christmas and the touching Rosie the Retired Rockette about an elderly woman living in a rest home being visited by her daughter and two granddaughters at Christmas. I quite loved the latter.

Instead of going home through the freeway, we cut back through town and drove home as we used to so many years ago when the Phoenix Science Fiction Society met at the old Virginia-Highlands branch of the library on Saturday nights, up North Highland Road, and then turning down Morningside and going through "little" Lenox Road (as opposed to the larger end of Lenox Road with the mall and all the condos) back to Cheshire Bridge Road, to see all the pretty light displays in the old houses: mock Tudors and stone-fronted cottages and the occasional small apartment building. The guy on Morningside Drive still has his seven-foot spotlighted Grinch flat! (Sadly, the house next door wasn't lighted up to make it funnier.)

Home finally to the fids' relief.

Today was a bit quieter. It was a mucky day, dissolving into rain and chill, but we had Christmas carols on "Holiday Traditions" to keep us warm. We ran out to Kroger and got home just in time to make a run for the movie theatre one more time to catch Lincoln. There were, even on a rainy, bleak, clammy gray Sunday, even fewer people at the movies. This time there might have been half a dozen people in the theatre when we sat down.

This is a fabulous movie. It was costume drama done right, with homely scenes like Lincoln sitting in his bedroom with his stocking feet propped up talking to "Molly." Daniel Day-Lewis was an uncanny Lincoln and Sally Field captured the emotionally fragile Mary Todd to perfection. The film covers the last four months of Lincoln's life, mainly of his fight to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the wheeling-dealing that went on behind that. Tommy Lee Jones was quite notable as Thaddeus Stevens as well. I didn't believe that was Joseph Gordon Levitt playing Robert Lincoln; he's come a long way from Third Rock from the Sun! I loved such touches as the rooms being dark to simulate gaslight; only rooms with large windows on sunny days were really bright.

If this movie doesn't get some major Oscar note, I will be very disappointed.

When the movie was finished we headed up to Barnes & Noble to spend the coupons. I hadn't been able to find A Kosher Christmas (Jewish commentary on Christmas) at West Cobb, but I knew the Akers Mill store had it. We weren't here long, since James couldn't find anything, and bought the book and drove up to the Town Center store, where I had seen a book mentioned on "The Splendid Table," Consider the Fork. James ended up getting that one, as well as a new Eat This, Not That and a potluck book, while I bought Paris to the Past, a book of essays about visiting historical sites in France via train from Paris. I wish someone would do a book like this about England!

On the way to the Akers Mill store, we stopped at the RaceTrac gas station to buy a newspaper. There was a big sign outside that said "Free coffee, any size, from December 16 through December 22." This a Christmas customer appreciation promotion. Pity we don't drink coffee! However, they also had hot chocolate, so we treated ourselves—and they treated us, even though it wasn't coffee! That was quite nice.

We had an easy supper: Hormel Beef Tips and gravy over spaetzle, with a cucumber salad and no-sugar-added ice cream bars for dessert, watching Christmas videos on America's Funniest Home Videos, and then recorded versions of Rocket City Rednecks.


Spirits of Christmas, edited by Kathryn Cramer and David Hartwell
This is one of six volumes edited by Hartwell that compiles otherworldly Christmas stories. Some volumes are chiefly science-fiction or fantasy, but this one is definitely a "spirited" volume in which all the stories involve a ghost or hauntings of some kind. Some are by new writers and others are vintage, the lynchpin being Charles Dickens' "The Haunted Man," the last of his Christmas stories. Another vintage story is by Frank Stockton, another sentimental tale of an old couple regretting not having children is by Hildegarde Hawthorne, and yet a third tale involves several college boys, a haunted family estate, and a prank gone wrong. One of my favorites of the newer stories was "Snow Ghosts," about a 90-year-old man whose sojourn to a busy pub turns into a date from the past, and another is "O Come Little Children," in which a boy recognizes a disreputable-looking Santa Claus for who he really is. I found the final two stories rather anticlimactic, but, really, there isn't a bad story in the bunch, and a variety of themes for everyone. Worth checking out!

(Note: if otherworldly Christmases are "your bag," you might try checking out Christmas Stars, which not only contains the story "The Greatest Gift," which is the genesis for the film It's a Wonderful Life, but includes Arthur C. Clarke's famous short story about the origin of the Christmas star.)

Postponed Joy

Well, snellfrocky. Today is usually the morning I go to the Apple Annie Craft Show, but I had our extra phone batteries/chargers scheduled to come today by FedEx and a signature was necessary. I knew FedEx Guy would not be early!

First thing I did was sleep in...until 8:40! What a luxury! I'd woken up cold last night and so snuggling was so very cozy. Then I got up and had breakfast and put Christmas carols on the television. I finished my book reviews for November (surreptitiously sneaking into the bathroom to finish up Quirky QWERTY, which I started last night—it wasn't a long book). Cleaned off the front of my desk. Went downstairs and shelved all the books that have been piling up down there since before September. Have filled a box with books. James and I figure that perhaps we can just keep the books—donating them is giving us no especially bargains at tax time—and then every so often take a ride up to McKay's to trade them in. God knows there were more books I could have bought yesterday.

Once that was done, I vacuumed the stairs and then finished indexing our vacation photos, and did a backup of the entire hard drive. By this time it was nearly 1:30...and the doorbell rang! It was FedEx! I decanted the batteries posthaste, stuck them in to charge, and dressed quickly to head out to Apple Annie, stopping at Publix on the way there to get money and paper towels.

I had a nice stroll amongst the craft booths. Some really pretty stained glass in one booth! Many things I couldn't afford, but loved, like the small themed Christmas trees and the beautiful Christmas quilts (a small foot-throw was $90, but I know all the work that goes into them). The papyrus lady recognized me. I bought a pretty print of The Seasons and a gift (plus a small extra gift). The prim lady was there for the last time; she is retiring. Even though she's having a going-out-of-business sale next week, I did buy a few things, including a cute gift. I was attracted by a blue, Nordic-design winter hat made by one of the mission countries (St. Ann's is a LaSalette church), so I bought one.

My favorite part of Apple Annie day is going in the Garden of Reconciliation. At this season it is somber, with brown leaves scattering the walks. There is a small statue of St. Francis at one end and one of the Virgin at the other, plus a cross. In the middle of the area is a small waterfall with a weeping figure beside the pond, and overhanging that area is a scarlet maple. The top of the tree was "blown," but the bottom was still a brilliant red, painting a lovely picture. I stayed for a while, and then was able to walk into the sanctuary of the church. It was dark and quiet, and I said some prayers and felt so peaceful.

Came home just before James did, so decided to take the fall/Thanksgiving items off the porch. Right now I can only replace it with the Christmas wreath and the St. Nicholas banner, but it's a start. :-)

A Much-Belated Decorating Project

I saw a similar idea to this once in a crafting magazine and said "What a cute idea!" So I began to assemble the parts. During post-fall sales I bought a packet of artificial leaves. At Walmart I bought little crafting clothespins.

Do you know how much trouble I had finding string? I mean, garden variety string! You used to be able to walk into any grocery store and find string, which would be used for tying up roasts. Italian moms used to tie up bragioles with them (a kind of meat roll with a thin-sliced steak for an exterior with all sorts of goodies inside: cheese, garlic cloves, chopped up lunchmeats, etc.). Or you could get it in Woolworth's or any five-and-ten, in the hardware section.

By the time I found the string (really a brown twine), I'd misplaced the leaves and the clothespins!

So a month or so back I bought more clothespins. And today I bought more leaves.

And "viola!" as Snagglepuss used to say:

The little tabs you see are "fall phrases":

"Gingerbread weather," "Fall forever!" "Pumpkin pie," and "Wonder-FALL!" above.

"Fresh crisp apples," "Autumn blessings," "Bright fall colors," and "Falling leaves" below.

And that's it, all clipped to the twine.

22 Days Before Christmas

Thursday was mostly devoted to work, and I was quite happy to get two orders done on the new Virtual Desktop. We couldn't do it previously because macros were not enabled in Word. I was told by IT to enable all macros because it was a secure environment; previously we had been forbidden to do so due to viruses. So, yay!

During lunch I got the foyer decorated; at least the lights on the miniatures tree worked this year! Later on I was able to decorate the divider that separates the upper story from the foyer.

Just before we went to bed, James brought up the board that goes over the mantel shelf and I brought up the box with the village. That was for today, but it was done very late in the afternoon.

I started out by trying to print the labels for the Christmas card envelopes. This was a terrible mess. The cartridge in my printer was shot, so I tried to print them on James' printer. James' printer has never been the same since he tried to print some decals and got the paper wrapped around the drum and we had to peel it off. They eventually did print, but half of them were bad.

I did, however, finally get the yearly newsletter printed out neatly.

About eleven I left for the Apple Annie Craft Show at St. Anne's Church off Roswell Road. On the way there I stopped at Publix for cash and the post awful for stamps.

The show was fun, although the vendors I wanted to be there weren't (the woman who makes the bottle straps and the person who sold the dog soap). I got only three small things, two of them gifts.

On the way back I stopped at Borders. Found some neat little photo-history books like this, the 1900s, 1910s, and 1930s, for only $2 each. Also bought a "Period Living" and a book (which it turned out we had—I thought we only had the DVD).

On the way out I saw a new hardback called Christmas 1945. Wow! Looks great!

Stopped at Trader Joe's for some bread for lunch and also some proscuitto, but I didn't look at the label carefully enough. It's smoked. Ugh. But I was hungry, so ate it anyway.

Then stopped at Target to buy the glider rocker I have picked out to replace the papasan chair. It turned out the box was too big for the back of my car, so I told them we would come back tonight. I did get a new toner cartridge for my printer before coming home. I got the Samsung original (the price merely made me scream silently) instead of the Office Depot refurb, which is what I got last time. It made nice black copies for a short while and then scattered toner all over the inside of the printer and has given me nothing but pale grey copies for months.

It was only after I'd nursed a sinus headache and taken the dog out that I got to work on the village. Luckily I put everything in the same place each year, so it was easy to place the seven buildings and then arrange the now-well known figures around them: the returning soldier greeting his girl, the nuns singing to the family while Father O'Malley reads his scripture out back, the kid with his tongue stuck to the flagpole, the boy with the plane model, the shoppers exiting Woolworth's, and the policemen just having left "the Buttery" (which is downstairs from radio station WENN, of course).

We had supper at Ken's Grill again, then went back to Target to fetch the rocker and to Borders to return the book (I found its sequel and got that instead). James got me the Christmas 1945 book for Christmas! On the way home we spotted Christmas lights at every quarter, including the house that has a big trumpeting angel on each gatepost of their house.

We received our first Christmas card today, which was enough incentive for me to sit down and finish all the signatures, stick the missives in certain envelopes and label them, and then sticker and stamp them, which I finished up during Tonight.

36 Days Until Christmas

Today was the first of my use-or-lose Fridays and I made the most of it by getting a bit of extra sleep. I toyed with going out, but instead worked on some holiday crafts.

So here I was on the Friday before Thanksgiving playing Christmas music while gussying up Hallowe'en decorations. :-) Playing actual records, too: my copy of the Cranston High School East A Capella Choir LP, "The Partridge Family Christmas Album," and "The Waltons Christmas Album," all nostalgic. My best friend Sherrye was in the A Capella Choir and on one song she has a duet with another soprano. I can always pick out her voice.

The Hallowe'en ornaments weren't much. They are small baubles—I hate saying "balls"; it has such a negative connotation these days!—less than an inch in diameter, in matte black and dark orange. I had a sample collection of "Hallowe'en glitter," so I took six black baubles, coated them in Elmer's glue, and then on three sprinkled bright orange glitter and on three bright green glitter. I used black and purple glitter on the orange ones, drawing bats with glue on three (black glitter) and ghosts (purple). Well, they're supposed to be ghosts and bats, anyway. LOL. Some may see them as shapeless blobs.

Next I painted the supposedly "white" little stool I'd bought on sale at Michael's. The little red stool is already doing duty in holding a stuffed turkey down in the foyer; it will also be employed for Christmas and Valentine's Day, and, with proper decoration, Independence Day. The white stool was actually more dirty cream-colored, and "distressed." Frankly, it looked more annoyed. :-) I painted it a matte pale "winter blue," and it will be used in the winter and for Easter. I didn't bother "distressing" it.

I started working on a Christmas project, but got tired of that, cleared off the rocker, and, to Schuyler's displeasure, sat listening to podcasts while cross-stitching. If Skye had her way, she'd watch television every minute. Listened to one "History of the World in 100 Objects," and a "Travel With Rick Steves" about Belgium and Belize. Did you know it's shorter to get to Tikal (in Guatemala) from Belize? Also lots of talk about "French" fries (invented in Belgium and eaten there with mayonnaise) and Flemish now being the primary language over French.

I am working on this.

61 Days Until Christmas

After a beautiful week of New England autumn leaves, the ones here are a bit disheartening. It's not the trees' fault; the soil and the climate is different, and it hasn't yet become cold, so the trees are of subdued hues; even the occasional orange and yellow are muted.

However, we had a good rain this morning, and, although it looked as if it were clearing up when I went to lunch, when I awoke from my nap the clouds had come over again, almost completely covering the sky. It wasn't dark, but grey and misty, and it lent an unearthly look to the trees. The color is always a bit brighter at work, because the complex is set next to a wetlands, and the combination of turning trees against the clouds was quite pretty.

I am doing something tonight I haven't done in ages, work on a cross stitch! It's a small kit I bought on Saturday. I have Strong Poison (the Sayers story done with Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey), and stitching Father Christmas and watching Harriet Vane be cleared of murder make agreeable evening companions.

85 Days Until Christmas

Whew! End of fiscal year is finally...well, ended, and it's time to start living again. Temperatures dropped a few days ago—I never thought I would be so glad to see it in the 70s, as high 50s are my favorite. Driving home lately I have noted goldenrod sprouting everywhere. It's time for wonderful things

• autumn leaves
• open window weather
• fall festivals
• fall decorations
• pumpkin tarts at Trader Joe's
• hot chocolate and hot soup
• next year's calendars
• Christmas planning magazines
• great photos of autumn landscapes

(hmmn, sense a theme here?)

Ironically the craft project I have now is partially an Easter project, but it can also be used for winter. I bought two little stools to go in the foyer to hold holiday figures or decor. One is red and will work for Christmas, autumn, Valentines Day, and even Independence Day, but it really didn't work for Easter, so I also bought one that's kind of a distressed creamy white. I'm going to paint it pale blue, so it will work for both Easter and winter.

97 Days Until Christmas

The best way to spend the time until Christmas is to enjoy the autumn.

Here an entire collection of fall festivals dot the weekends up through October. It starts out with the annual Yellow Daisy Festival the weekend after Labor Day, with booths that line the different trails through the Stone Mountain exhibition grounds. Wares range from cute clothes for Grandmas to shower their grandchildren with to foods (barbecue sauce, soup and casserole mixes, candies, dips, maple syrup, and more), crafts to outdoor displays, children's playthings to homemade soap, musicians CDs to recycled products, home decor, fudge, furniture, ceramics, and more, with the obligatory food stands—and even souvenir bags, postcards, and mugs. Booths are liberally laced with artificial garlands of colorful autumn leaves, and a hope for cool fall is in the air.

This is usually followed by a little show called "A Blue Ribbon Affair" which proceeds the North Georgia State Fair. Well, "proceeds" except for this year. We arrived at the park today to find out they had cancelled it despite announcements to the contrary. Made a bit of a dent in our day.

Will just have to dive back into my collection of fall magazines, including Blue Ridge Country and Birds and Blooms, having finished up Yankee and Vermont Life.

My Snurgly Valentine

I had a cold over Valentine's Day, so it wasn't the fluffy romantic day that most women might have wanted. I was feeling pretty wretched, to be honest.

When I was feeling better on Friday, however, I got a bee in my bonnet about the game night. I had looked in the stores for old-fashioned Valentine cards like this one.


But everything I saw was media-based. Instead, I noted the little Valentine card kit I bought at Michaels last year. Along with some cute animal stickers, I made handmade cards for each person. I also made a Valentine card for James with an original verse inside. It was fun. I should do projects like this more often.

No pics, sorry. These were little cards, and the stickers were Suzy's Zoo cats and dogs and one bear.

C is for Christmas Crafts Continued

Remember this?



Well, it now looks like this:



You can see roof, top glass, and pavement have been slightly "dirtied down."

Poster has a soldier with "We'll Meet Again...Buy More War Bonds" surrounding.

The handbill at front says "War Bond Rally...7 PM City Hall...Help our boys fight!"

Here's the other side:



"Kilroy" grafitti visible. The poster says "When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler...join a car-sharing club today!"

All done to a lovely accompaniment of Strauss on WABE: selections from Die Fledermaus and also "The Beautiful Blue Danube"—which, of course, I can't hear without thinking of Rudolf and Flavia dancing in The Prisoner of Zenda (the original, of course, with Ronald Colman...drool...).

I never could find a proper figure to go in the stair. I'll look again next year. I have a stray cat that can be placed outside.

C is for Christmas Crafts

One of the things I bought yesterday was the "Carol Towne" subway entrance:



Since about half of the mantelpiece village is a city scene, I thought it would be appropriate between two of the buildings rather than the trees I have there now.

But my scene is wartime/1940s and the Carol Towne piece Victorian era, and it also has no "snow" on it like the other pieces, so this morning I took it into my own "Santa's workshop" and started to work some magic on it. First I aged it just slightly by dry brushing some brown and grey paint on the "onion dome" type top and on the "glass" roof and overhang. I also put some on the floor to the entrance so it will look like people with dirty boots have tramped in and out. On one of the panes of "glass" opposite the newspaper box I drew a "Kilroy was here" figure.

From there I could have just added white paint, but I like the snow to be a little more three-dimensional, so I have used Elmer's glue to make little "snow piles" at the sides and in the cuts on the entrance dome. Right now those are drying and I will paint over with white paint when it is finished. I also used a black paint pen to correct something: the price on the newspaper dispensing machine (which they actually wouldn't have had back in Victorian times, just a newsboy) said "25¢"—good heavens, even magazines didn't cost that much at the time, and not even in the 1940s! So I blotted out the "2."

In the meantime I have printed out two WWII posters on James' color printer: the "You drive with Hitler when you drive alone" poster which I thought appropriate for a subway entrance, and another war bond poster, plus made a home-made sign announcing a War Bond rally for 7 p.m. at City Hall. Those will be glued on the sides of the entrance after it's "snowed." Then it will be finished, although I am toying with another idea. Of course there is no stairway "down" except for a black spot representing the stairwell. I was thinking of buying a figure and then cutting it in half, gluing the top half of the figure on the "stairwell" so it looks as if someone coming up from the subway.

Fun stuff...love doing this!

The Christmas Mystery

I spent an interesting day either working in my craft room or wrapping Christmas gifts.

Two of the gifts require "presentation"—basically, I don't want the gift to look like what it is. So I am presenting it in a different way, which required some painting. I realized when I started to paint that the surface I was painting had a varnish on it. So I did manage to paint it, eventually, but it was a struggle. I made sure to use a little sandpaper on the second item and the painting went a bit better. Then the items were trimmed and left to dry.

I also started a decorative Christmas craft, but might use it as a gift, so will not talk about it.

I wrapped gifts one and two and three at the time, going back to the crafts, or to harvest crops in Farmville, or even to grab a peanut butter sandwich. I finally got to the last one I could do, which was wrapped in tissue paper and had the person's name upon it.

Except when I opened it, it wasn't a gift for that person at all, it was the two Christmas ornaments I had bought up at the Christmas shop in Dillard last April. Too weird. I swear I bought the gift...so where is it?

Christmas After All

My new calendar says today is Eastern Orthodox Christmas, so I have turned the tree lights on, and plugged in the village. :-) Dish Network's "Holiday Music" channel is still going, so I have lit a Yankee Candle cafè au lait tea light and am availing myself of both as I work. Outside it is finally cold again after several miserable days of temps in the high 60s. How the wind does blow! I can hear the winter banner rattling on its flagpole and turn to look down on the flag bellying out every so often as a gust takes it.

However, I have taken the candles out of the windows upstairs and have the boxes down (thanks, sweetie) and ready for this year's "hibernation." I am also making notes of things that are needed for next year, like proper extension cords outside and most probably a new five-candle candolier as one of them that I inherited from Mom no longer lights one of the bulbs anymore (the bulbs are fine; it's the socket).

Lest you think now that the holidays are over the crafts are as well, I say nay! I bought four inexpensive items from the dollar store last week, mostly to use on the porch. One, a Santa face, is fine, but the freestanding "Noël" with the Santa figure was dented a bit on top, and the three-panel "Tis the Season" is a bit plain. I will fill in the scraped paint of the dent with a similar color then "sprinkle" the already "snow spattered" Santa with white paint so it all matches. On the "Tis the Season" panels I will put some Christmas-y wooden cutouts.

The fourth item is a snowman with a tall hat that says "Let it snow" and "Welcome" with a cardinal and a snowflake on it. It is wintry rather than Christmas-y, except for the red band on his hat trimmed with a holly cutout. I will pry the holly cutout off, paint the band blue, and glue a wooden snowflake cutout (also in blue) on it instead. Voilà! Winter decoration!

Incidentally, I was so frazzled yesterday when I was removing Christmas decorations from my cubicle. I have winter decorations that include winter, snowy calendar pictures, a winter bouquet of evergreens with pine cones and snow glitter, and a bouquet of holly leaves covered in white flocking and snow glitter. Previously I have had a plain green garland with silver shot through it, like a pine tree after an ice storm. To me that is "winter," not "Christmas," but people still come by and say "Why are your Christmas decorations still up?" So this year I bought an extra white snowflake garland and put that up instead. Wouldn't you know someone came by and asked, "Are you still putting up Christmas decorations?"

What? It only snows at Christmas??? ARRRRRRGH! ::sigh::